Family Vacation to UT

For spring break we combined Rick's continuing education with a vacation. He took a course in Las Vegas on Saturday and Sunday. While he was in class, Sue and Jarrod enjoyed the city. They took a tour of the Hoover Dam. Jarrod enjoyed going deep inside to see the turbines. It is enormous! They returned to Vegas and saw a display called "The Body". It is a display of dissected bodies. It sounds gross but was very educational. The human body is an amazing structure!!

Saturday was a beautiful day to see the dam. We left Vegas at noon for Utah. We had just passed Beaver when it began to snow. Fortunately, it wasn't cold enough to stick on the pavement (except a little on the peak near Holden). But this is the FIRST OF APRIL!!

But Monday was gorgeous! It was nice for snowball fights and making a snowman.

But what was really beautiful was Katelynn. She found a hat and jewelry.

On Tuesday, we went to the zoo in Salt Lake City. Katelynn really likes elephants. Tuesday evening, we went with the entire family to P.F. Chang's for dinner. Sorry, no good photos.

On Wednesday, Rick and Jarrod went to Sundance for a day of skiing. It was surprising good for this late in the season. It was sunny in the AM for overcast with some light snow the rest of the day so not too slushy until late in the afternoon. We also went with Rick, Adam, and Kyle Christensen from Orange (and Logan, Caroline Christensen's husband). We have photos of them skiing you can request.

This was only Jarrod's third time on skis. He did extremely well. The photo below on the Top Gun slope - a black diamond level run. He was able to do it several times quite well.

You can see, he's doing good. The guy cutting between us is Logan.

Science Project

For his science fair project, Jarrod used a small generator and voltage meter to determine the best type of blade. He used 3 lengths (6, 12, 18), 3 angles (12, 24, 36) and 3 blades numbers (3, 4, 6). He took 2nd place in the aerodynamics category for his school. He will be in the district science fair later this month.

Kids Visits

Nathan had a job interview last weekend (make that 2 weekends ago - had an issue with Google publishing this last week) with an accounting firm in Irvine. He flew in on Thursday night. Unknown to us (until they showed up on Friday) Alyssa and Ben drove down with Ben's sister. So we had 3 of the 4 kids here for the weekend. It was great having them here - though we missed Jen/Katelynn & Josh/Hayley. Nathan had to work on his application for his Master's program. But we were still able to have time to some fun. We went to Dromo1 (go carts), a movie (Jumper [wait for the video]), and dinner (Greg & Diane met us there).

LATE POSTING
Nathan got the internship in Irvine. He will be here for the summer.

Alyssa/Ben's baby's first pictures

You surely didn't expect a real photo. She's not due until August 12th. These will have to due until then. Isn't he or she just the cutest little, uh... fetus you've ever seen? That is if you can figure out what is what.

Jarrod paintballing

On President's Day, Jarrod and his friend Adam spent the day playing paintball wars. The course is at the Orange County Fair Grounds. We thought it would only be a few hours. They played from 10:30 to 5:30. They stopped only because we had to get them to tennis practice by 6:00. The hazey photos are through the screen that covered the course.

It's "safe" but can still leave a mark as Adam shows us a welt on his arm and Jarood has one on his upper arm.

Wearing the mask is a must. This would not have been a pretty sight if he's not been wearing the mask. I saw one young man life the mask a little to wipe the fog inside. The ref pronounced him dead and he had to leave the field.

They don't look like it, but they had a good time.

Family News

We haven't had much to take pictures of, so no new pictures. However, there have been some exciting news this month.

• Alyssa and Ben are expecting!!! They are due in August. They are very excited.
  
• Jarrod got a 447 out of 300 on his Biology lab final. He got one of the highest scores. Since the teacher grades on a curve it pushed his score over the top.
• Jarrod had try-outs for Villa Park High School's tennis team. He played 4 games and won all 4. The last game was against the best junior varsity player. He was excited to make the team!!
  

Christmas in California

The Sunday before Christmas Day, we were able to have the whole family together for dinner. This is a family photo we took. Rick's brother, Steve, and family came for dinner - including a co-worker of Kathie's from Japan. After dinner, we sent to a neighborhood in Brea that goes "all out" with decorations. It's hard to describe. Let's just say there was a live manger scene with live sheep and Steve could see the neighborhood from the air when landing at John Wayne Airport Friday night. It was special to have all the kids and their families together for the holiday's. We aren't sure when this will happen again.

Nathan being stopped by Santa.

Josh being pat on the head by Santa.We ate Christmas Eve dinner at the Masters. All but Nathan and his family were there.

But after the dinner at Masters, all the family met for the "open a gift on Christmas Eve" tradition (usually PJ's, slippers...).

It worked out that everyone was able to be at our home on Christmas morning.

Katelynn & Jen are here!!

Jennifer and Katelynn flew in for the holidays on Sunday. Nathan has finals and will drive down at the end of the week. Katelynn is growing very fast. Her vocabulary is growing and pronunciation becoming easier to understand. It is amazing how much they comprehend at this young age. Of course you can tell, we are not proud grandparents. Nate and Jen are doing a fabulous job.

Katelynn didn't take long to find the ginger bread houses from Jarrod's party (see previous posting)!!

Proud grandparents!!

Jarrod Party

Jarrod had friends over last Friday night for a party. One of the activities was building ginger bread houses. They had a good time. They also played Wii and DDR.n Funny thing-- from the pictures, it's obvious the girls out numbered the boys by about 2 to 1. We just roll our eyes as parents thinking "here we go again through the teenage years" - but with a big smile!

Getting a bit cool but the fire and patio heater helped.

The final masterpieces!!

Katelynn's, I mean Nate & Jen's visit

We spoke with Nate & Jen the Sunday before Thanksgiving. They were spending the holiday with Grandpa and Nancywith Jen's family is Salt Lake. On Tuesday afternoon, Sue was out shopping when she received a call from OUR HOUSE. There was initial panic as to who was calling from our house when I was at work and Jarrod at school. Nathan and Jen had decided to drive down and surprise us. They did. It was wonderful to have them here for a few days.

Katelynn has some of the cutest faces.

Grandma (Sue) saw this at Costco several weeks ago and couldn't resist. When you press the ear the head and tail move and it makes a clopping and naying sound.

Look out, she will be driving before you know it.

What a good looking family.

We went to Rainforest Cafe on Saturday night.

In the restaurant, there are jungle noises every 30 minutes. She imitated the monkeys.